Detail of Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Reveries of an Underground Forest, 2019
In her multidisciplinary practice, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan uses the notion of absence and invisibility, in order to anchor memory through unseen and forgotten aspects of time & space and architectural memory in reference to ruptures in socio-political histories. Through her sculptures, site specific interventions, drawings and films, Büyüktaşcıyan dives into terrestrial imagination by unearthing patterns of selected narratives and timelines that unfold the material memory of unstable spaces.
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan was born in Istanbul in 1984, and graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting department in 2006. She was awarded the Emerging Artist Prize at the Toronto Biennial of Art in 2019.
Detail of Hera Büyüktaşciyan, Terrestrial II, 2019
Solo and two-person exhibitions include: Defending Ancient Waters, Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré (CCC OD), Tours, France (2024); Resonant Grounds, Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Vassivière Island, France (2023); Earthbound Whisperers, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall, UK (2023); A Line of Foreign Verses, Hera Büyüktaşcıyan and Seher Shah, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2023); On Stones and Palimpsests, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2020); Neither on the Ground, nor in the Sky, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa) Gallery, Berlin, Germany (2019); and Write Injuries on Sand and Kindness in Marble, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE (2017).
Recent group exhibitions include: WOMEN, together, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2023); Healing Ruins, Zeyrek Çinili Hamam, Istanbul (2023); A Permanent Nostalgia for Departure: A rehearsal on legacy with Zaha Hadid, Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, OH (2023); All Images Will Disappear, One Day, Autostrada Biennale, Kosovo (2023); soft and weak like water, 14th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea (2023); You Know Who, Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion, Turkey (2022); Enmeshed, Tate Modern, London, UK (2022); Biennale Matter of Art, Prague, Czech Republic (2022); rīvus, Biennale of Sydney 2022, Australia (2022); Biennale Matter of Art, Prague, Czech Republic (2021); Soft Water Hard Stone, New Museum Triennial, New York, NY (2021); Once Upon a Time Inconceivable, Protocinema, Istanbul (2021); I heard it from the valleys, Haus N Athen, Athens, Greece (2021); What If a Journey..., Autostrada Biennale, Kosovo (2021); Permanent Spring, Delayed Bloom, Protocinema Open Air Screening Tour 2021, Multiple cities (2021); Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa, The British Museum, London, UK (2021); LB02: between the sun and the moon, Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan (2020); Every Step in the Right Direction, Singapore Biennale, National Gallery, Singapore (2019); The Shoreline Dilemma, Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada (2019); On Threads and Frequencies, GIGANTISME, Dunkirk, France (2019); Planetary Planning, Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2018); Doublethink: Double vision, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey (2017); Still (the) Barbarians, EVA International – Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick, Ireland (2016); Saltwater, Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); and Armenity, Armenian Pavillion, 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015) among others.
She lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey.
Ahead of Hera Büyüktasciyan's exhibition Defending Ancient Waters at the Centre de Création Contemporain Olivier Debré, to where it travels from ClAP, the artist and curator discuss her investigation of the layers of unseen elements in artificially transformed landscapes.
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan has been steadily rising above career milestones, mostly recently with new commissions for the New Museum’s Triennial and the 2022 Biennale of Sydney.
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan unfolds the layers of history through sculpture.
A look at eight standout artists in the New Museum Triennial by Alex Greenberger.
Istanbul-based Hera Büyüktaşcıyan adopts a similarly expansive perspective of historical time. Looking closely at the architectural structures of cities that have experienced seismic changes in populations, Büyüktaşcıyan traces nearly forgotten tales through her sculptures, installations, videos, and drawings.
In a conversation with Hera Büyüktaşcıyan, Huo Rf talks about the artist's practice, the relationship of time and space/place and how the concept of freezing time and fossilization relates to her works.
Hera Büyüktaşçiyan is featured in the November/December 2019 Issue of Sanat Dünyamiz. In an interview with Fisun Yalçinkaya, the artist discusses her past and recent works.
Hera Büyüktaşçiyan was awarded the Emerging Artist Prize at the inaugural edition of Toronto Biennial of Art.
Hera Büyüktaşçıyan inhabits a world of ambiguity, as her role is shaped by autobiographical narratives of exile and return between Turkey and its earlier Greek past.
Eleonora Castagna reviews Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's site specific installation, From There We Came Out and Saw the Stars at Aqua Augusta, Naples, Italy for Underneath the Arches.
Amrita Singh reviews Hera Büyüktaşçiyan's recent body of works.
Review on Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's solo show Write Injuries on Sand and Kindness in Marble at Green Art Gallery, Dubai, in Art in America written by Anna Wallace-Thompson.
A review of Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's solo exhibition Write Injuries on Sand and Kindness in Marble at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
An excerpt from Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's solo exhibition review Write Injuries on Sand and Kindness in Marble at Green Art Gallery, Dubai.
Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's solo exhibition at Green Art Gallery Write Injuries on Sandand Kindness in Marble in Artforum Critic's Picks by Gökcan Demirkazık.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans reviews Hera Büyüktaşçıyan for SFAQ.
Nicole O'Rourke reviews Alt's inaugural show If you can’t go through the door, go through the window.
Arie Amaya-Akkermans on the 14th Istanbul Biennial, SALTWATER: A Theory of Thought Forms.
Hera Büyüktaşçıyan talks to Ocula about the Armenian Pavilion at Venice.
Hera Büyüktaşçıyan dives into the murky waters of history to tell the stories of the dispossessed. Ayla Jean Yackley speaks with the artist between her appearances at the Venice and Istanbul biennales.
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan constructs a dialogue across time that complements the former’s investigation on Karamanlidika and Armeno-Turkish with a poetic utterance traveling far across eras.
Eleonora Castagna interviews Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, who is one of the youngest artists showcased at Armenity, the exhibition presented by the Armenian Pavilion, winner of the Golden Lion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
In this essay, written for the Golden Lion award-winning Pavilion of Armenia at the 56th Venice Biennale (2015) curated by Adelina Cüberyan von Fürstenberg, Stephanie Bailey considers the Pavilion's curatorial proposition of a transnational assembly.
Centenary of Armenian massacre marked in Venice Biennale presentation.
Curated by November Paynter, A Century of Centuries, recently held at SALT Beyoğlu in Turkey, presented an unfolding dialogue between various individual artistic positions.
A review of Hera Büyüktaşçıyan's The Land Across The Blind at Galeri Manâ, Istanbul, Turkey.
An Interview with Hera Büyüktaşçiyan and her artistic journey by Elizabeth Wolfson.
Hera Büyüktaşcıyan among the first 59 participants announced for the 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022), rīvus, meaning ‘stream’ in Latin, which will be open to the public from 12 March to 13 June 2022.
Known for her site-specific explorations of memory-charged spaces, Istanbul-based artist Hera Büyüktaşcıyan fathoms the aquatic currents of our minds. Her work navigates the sharp edge of social/political rupture, and floats through the endlessness of petrified time.
